OCZ Agility 120GB

Like the OCZ Vertex series the new Agility SSDs make use of the Indilinx 'Barefoot' controller, which has proven to be every bit as good as Samsung's. Indilinx claims that the IDX110M00-FC 'Barefoot' chip can achieve a maximum read speed of 230MB/s with capacities as large as 512GB using multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash.

The Indilinx (IDX110) Barefoot SSD controller chip is supported by a 64MB cache meant to improve small write performance and eliminate any 'stuttering' issues.

The OCZ specification for the Agility 120GB drive states that the read performance will be up to 230MB/s and the write 135MB/s. The claimed read and write performance are lower than that of the Vertex, and again this is something we will be looking into once we begin benchmarking.

Where the Vertex and Agility differ is in the NAND flash chips that they use. The Vertex employs Samsung K9HCG08U1M-PCB0 chips, whereas the Agility uses slower 29F64G08FAMCI chips which evidently cost less. Both do however feature the same Elpida 64MB cache memory chip.

OCZ also claims that the Agility has a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 1.5 million hours. This is the same estimation that they give their Vertex series, and it seems to be somewhat of a standard for these MLC drives.

The Agility SSDs measure 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm and weigh just 77 grams in a slim 2.5" form factor. OCZ claims 2 watts of power is consumed when the drive is in use and just 0.5 watts when in standby, which again seems to be the standard. The Agility SSDs are backed by a 3-year warranty.